It's just a short drive from Denver, but in his one-tank trip, Bill Clarke goes back more than a century out in Golden.

For some of us, they're just a distant memory. For others, they're a piece of history. And for others, they're part of a childhood fantasy. We're talking trains, and one place in Golden has something for everyone who is fascinated by trains.

At the Colorado Railroad Museum, you can touch history. You can climb on board a caboose. You can climb an engine and ring the bell or just walk around and let some of what's here -- a very solid part of Colorado history -- overwhelm you.

The museum's 11 acres are loaded with steam engines, diesel engines, freight cars, passenger cars, cabooses, and what is known as "the galloping goose."

The galloping goose is not much more than a truck chassis on railroad wheels. Train companies replaced expensive-to-operate steam powered trains on some Western slope routes with these vehicles, so when one of these tin contraptions came down the track and started honking its horn as it waddled along, people affectionately gave the name "galloping geese" to these vehicles.

But it's the television character Thomas the Tank that's generating new interest in trains and bringing a new generation out to the Railroad Museum.

You can bring a picnic lunch and stay all day if you like. You can rent a caboose for that special birthday party or just spend some time looking at the model railroads.

One of the bigger models outside covers about as much land as a small house. A smaller train runs on quarters down in the basement of the station house.

Railroads helped build the state of Colorado and the Colorado Railroad Museum is a great place to see them in all their glory.

The Colorado Railroad Museum is just off Colorado Highway 58 at McIntyre.

It's open every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $3 for kids. If the museum gets you fired up about old railroads, you're just a short drive to the routes that several old Narrow Gauge lines ran into the Rockies.

Bill Clarke's Travel Tips:

The Colorado Railroad Museum is just a short drive from downtown Denver, and because it's not far from Interstate 70, US Highway 6 and Colorado 470, it's an easy drive from anywhere in the metro area.

There's plenty of free parking and you can spend the entire day there. Bring a picnic lunch if you like. Just remember, it's an alcohol-free site.

This Saturday, railroad fans will be running rides on the Narrow Gauge Line on the museum's grounds. Regrettably, the steam engine is in for repairs.

The next best thing is the diesel, borrowed from the Georgetown Loop Railroad, that will be doing the work. The ride is free with your admission to the museum.

It's kind of fun to fantasize about living a life on the rails, or maybe traveling across the wild west in the days after the transcontinental railroad was built.

The museum is loaded with pictures, artifacts and memorabilia from those days and it's not hard to imagine yourself in a primitive passenger car crossing the open spaces... wait a minute! I'm getting too worked up about this stuff.

Must be because I've got some of that in my blood. Still get a few chills when I climb up in the cab of that old steam engine.

But if the museum, the books and the videos on sale inside the station house aren't enough, you can head west from Golden. Retrace the routes of at least three narrow gauge lines up 285 toward South Park, up Clear Creek toward Central City and Georgetown, or go further north up Highway 93 to Boulder and pick up the route of the old Switzerland Trail, the one that ran up Four Mile Road to Ward and beyond, so named because the route most closely resembled the route of a Swiss railroad than anything seen in this country.

More Information:

Colorado Railroad Museum